By Kim Wildman
MSN NZ Travel writer
Uluru, Angkor Wat, the Great Wall of China; some tourist attractions certainly make your jaw drop. But not all attractions live up to the marketing hype. Overrated and overpriced, some attractions leave you feeling more than a little underwhelmed.
Skywalk, Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon Skywalk — a glass-bottom, horseshoe-shaped walkway that cantilevers 1.2km above the canyon's Western Rim — might provide the kind of vertigo-inducing views only ever seen before by Wile E Coyote, but even Wile would be pushed over the edge by the cost. The US$20 ($27) parking fee is just the beginning.
You have to buy a US$29.95 ($41) package tour which allows you to take a short bus ride (on a perfectly good road which you could have walked or driven down yourself) to the edge of the rim. It's then another US$29.95 to actually walk on the Skywalk and you can't even take your camera with you! Of course you can have a photograph taken of you on the bridge at an additional cost if you choose. Give it a miss and visit the Southern Rim instead!
Dracula's Castle, Romania
From the land imaged with werewolves and vampires comes a tourist destination which really bites. With Transylvania renowned as the setting of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic novel Dracula (loosely based on Vlad Tepes, the revered prince from the Middle Ages who impaled his foes on stakes) Romania's Bran Castle has become synonymous with the Dracula myth.
Yet despite what the guides may tell you, neither Bram Stoker nor Vlad Tepes ever stepped foot here. What's more, the castle, with its whitewashed walls, red-tiled turrets and fairytale towers, is far from frightening. You're more likely to find Rapunzel rather than Dracula lurking inside!
Bondi Beach, Australia
It might be Australia's most iconic beach, but Bondi Beach in Sydney is far from country's cleanest, whitest or nicest beach. A so-so beach at best, it's surrounded by a busy road and bland apartment blocks and it's overrated and crowded.
With some 50,000km of coastline there are dozens of other better beaches dotted around Australia where you'll find space, privacy, clear, blue sea and relatively untracked sand. For a pristine white-sand beach try Hymans Beach on the NSW South Coast (recognised as having the whitest sand in the world by Guinness World Records), Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays or Wine Glass Bay in Tasmania.
The World's Biggest Pineapple, South Africa
Located in the small town of Bathurst, this giant fibreglass pineapple is famed as being the largest pineapple in the world. While it certainly looms large on South Africa's tourist landscape, it is in fact a rip-off of The Big Pineapple on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.
The Queensland idea was copied by a couple of South Africans who couldn't resist the chance to finally top the Aussies! At 16.7m high it's only a mere 70cm higher than its more famous counterpart and without the macadamia nut mobile it just isn't the same.
Manneken Pis, Belgium
This tiny statue of a boy taking a leak is one of Brussels' most famous — and disappointing — landmarks. Located on the corner of Rue de l'Etuve and Rue du Chêne just a few blocks behind the Town Hall, Manneken Pis has become so popular it's swarmed by thousands of tourists each year.
There are numerous legends about it and it even has its own collection of more than 500 costumes which are on display in the Musée de Ville de Bruxelles. But this is no Eiffel Tower or Statue of Liberty — it's merely a small statue atop of a water fountain. So you can't help but wonder "Is that it?"
